LOL, WSJ propaganda repeatedly bash China about ghost cities like Ordos which is false and now WSJ propaganda now admits that it.

6:19 pm September 24, 2013

ohmygod wrote:

China’s ‘Ghost Cities’ is in hong kong's western district

6:46 pm September 24, 2013

seeing is believing wrote:

There are lots of ghost malls and housing even in the heart of major cities. Don't be fooled by this article. Seeing is believing. The Chinese are using cheap bank money to build and build and to float an unsustainable economy. Many bridges go no place. The majority of Chinese can not afford to shop in malls or buy inflated housing.

7:19 pm September 24, 2013

flip flop wsj propaganda wrote:

boing ! boing ! boing !

8:04 pm September 24, 2013

ASEAN wrote:

Seeing is believing, indeed.
Take a look at the rosey car sales figures.

They are mostly bought with very little financing, given the small consumer financing industry,
and cars are comparable (i.e. in the same order) in capital deployment as apartments.
These figures are underpinned by the economy.

8:14 pm September 24, 2013

Moving flats wrote:

What a load on non-sense: So people in China are so rich that they keep two flats for months on end until not only they fit them out but they wait for the whole condo to be finished? In the real world people try to move into their new dwellings as quickly as possible so to avoid having two flats at the same time with the additional costs (mortgage etc.)

8:59 pm September 24, 2013

bankrupt ponzi americonz wrote:

jealous of china

9:57 pm September 24, 2013

ejw wrote:

This matches what I've seen in China. My in-laws just bought a place a few months ago, and they won't be moving in until 2015. That's pretty standard for their neighbors, too.

Starting about 6 years ago, I rented a 2-year-old apartment for 3 years. The first year was miserable, as nothing worked properly, and the building was surrounded with mud. Most units were empty. By the time I moved out, the building was 90% full, the neighborhood was beautiful, and things worked well. Usually.

Remember: China doesn't have property tax, which removes most of the liability for owning a place you don't plan to use right away. And, if you haven't moved in, utilities are also $0. Owning that property a little early is a lot better than watching your cash gradually become worthless in a bank.

Also remember: If your place is more than a decade old, no one actually "owns" it. Authorities can come in and push you out and tear it down at any time. The only way for a billion people to avoid imminent eviction is to buy a new place that was built under the new property rights laws.

The housing boom in China is nothing like Westerners have ever seen before. It will be fascinating to watch the story unfold in coming decades.

10:24 pm September 24, 2013

wsjdick wrote:

The Chinese leases their flats for 70 years. Technically speaking, they own nothing. Its funny how people think 70 years as "forever". Well, maybe the commies won't last 70 years. All I am saying is that for most Chinese, living one day at a time is the best they can do. No one knows what's going to happen in China, not even the Chinese. If Wall Street Journal had any smarts, you think America would be in the mess its in now? Some people just wants to sell papers.

12:09 am September 25, 2013

Mass refugee exodus wrote:

I'm waiting for 2020! That's the year all the underground fresh water runs dry in China. Then we will witness the great refugee migration of Chinese refugees invading Russia to escape the desert called China!

12:57 am September 25, 2013

Go figure Bankrupt Detroit wrote:

"China’s ‘Ghost Cities’ May Not Be So Spooky"

According to the idiots who claimed they where.
This is another example of clueless big mouth Americans.

China looks to the future.
America looks at a failed economy, huge debt and 2 lost wars.

China wins again.

1:09 am September 25, 2013

@wsjdick wrote:

Don't be a D-head! Americans never really own their real estate either, because of the real estate tax. The government just confiscated someone's residence because the poor guy owned $123 in tax.

5:48 am September 25, 2013

I wrote:

American power is shrinking. See how many Mexicans and Chinese now own California.
Not many years before Spanish becomes the first language of Americans.

5:49 am September 25, 2013

II wrote:

American power is shrinking. See how many Mexicans and Chinese now own California.
Not many years before Spanish becomes the first language of Americans.

8:34 am September 25, 2013

Guy wrote:

So where are the pictures of these "hordes of residents"?

10:09 am September 25, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

They look like ghost cities to me when the camera crews go thorough and they look like dead zones.

12:22 pm September 25, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

I have many friends in Zhengzhou, China. When I told them about 60 min report of ghost city, they were surprised. just like this: "What"? I trust what my friends told me instead of CNN 60 minutes. If it is said of Zhengzhou ghost town two years ago, I believe, but not this year. I am disappointed with CNN labeling cities wrongly in 2013.

1:15 pm September 25, 2013

Sam wrote:

This report is not surprising at all. Journalist want eye-catching reports, while real-estate developers, city planners and analyst actually have a stake in the outcome of the housing market. If journalist were the first, and the only one reporting the "ghost cities", then you know they are doing that to sell paper. I have seen similar tactics used to report on post-Olympic Beijing. The photographer went to some random corner of the city in winter --- when no one is out on the street, took a few carefully designed shots, Photoshop it to add a few dark feelings, and then complied a report claiming that Beijing abandoned all the facilities after the Olympics, when in fact the opposite is true.

Western journalist always have this urge to report things in China as very shocking, either saying that China is rapidly booming into a superpower, or claim that the country is filled with bubbles and is doomed to fail. I was fortunate enough to have the chance to intern for a year at the research department of a securities company in China, doing things similar to what this analyst author is doing. That's when I realized that the government, the academia, and the private sector and the people were always monitoring all aspects of the country's economy and social development very very cautiously. Anytime you read a shocking China story, like the ghost city, in WSJ or NYT, it is usually not a problem, outdated or in the process of being resolved.

2:19 pm September 25, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

Tibetans will crush the PLA and send China out of the Republic of Tibet

7:17 pm September 25, 2013

Simon wrote:

I think that's a correct observation. Most ghost real estate developments have already been sold to private owners, it's just that nobody lives there yet.

Private real estate has been and is still excellent business for the developpers, how sustainable the prices are (not the demand, which is unquestionably high) is another question.

8:04 pm September 25, 2013

Siloo Kapadia wrote:

The article is mostly rubbish. China has full of ghost towns and YES, they ARE EMPTY. I don't know what the writer is talking about.

12:14 am September 26, 2013

Ken wrote:

@ ASEAN

Cars are not anything like homes. Cars are consumption, not capital investment, as they depreciate and waste away relatively quickly.

12:20 am September 26, 2013

Ken wrote:

All one has to do is look at the money mechanics of apartment purchasing in China, coupled to the economic structure of the nation, and it all makes sense. The housing market is designed for speculation and wealth protection from the national economic risks. But a safe haven is only viable if a limited number use it. When the masses join in you end up with a bubble, compounding the original problems.

7:53 am September 26, 2013

Jason Marquardt wrote:

"In the case of Henan’s Zhengzhou—frequently dubbed China’s “largest ghost city”—Ms. Wong notes that a number of media portrayals of the city’s newer areas have used photographs taken between 2010-12, before the metro system connecting the district to the city’s more established neighborhoods was completed."

I live in Zhengzhou, and the metro system has yet to be completed. This makes it sound like it's already up and running.

9:08 am September 26, 2013

THINK! Don't emote hate... wrote:

The notion of existing "ghost villages" in China is just so laughable. lol.

China's policy of moving ~250 million rural folks to urban areas in the next decades will drive up the demand for more housing all the way till year 2030, and possibly beyond. Even If China continues non-stop to build housing units at a steady pace till that time, its teeming new urban population will barely be satisfied.

Right now, China has a housing shortage problem ! Even up in bitter cold Ordos, wc is not that far away from the rich mineral mines of Inner Mongolia.

Western media, except for FT, like to latch on to some sensational issue against the Chinese without really thinking it through, and gnaw on it like a pitbull sinking its teeth on a postman. The purpose is to demonize everything the Chinese people do, to discredit them. They can't handle the truth, just as some permanent hateful trolls on this forum!

9:40 am September 26, 2013

Boojiac wrote:

Hey, Think!
I've been living in China for the last five years. From what I've seen, China doesn't have a housing shortage problem. Lots of people buy more houses than they need, because it's seen as a "good investment", and the houses typically sit there empty for years. It's true that many people in the lower class can't get a house, simply because the houses are way overpriced, and they can't afford to buy one, while the rich have several or even many houses.

Actually, in my time here, I have come to realize that people in the west, and also in the media, have no real idea about what is really happening in China at all. Is China going to become the world's largest economy? Yes, almost certainly. Are they going to be the largest consumer? Again, almost certainly. Are they going to lead the world with new innovations throughout the rest of this century? Very unlikely.

10:51 pm September 26, 2013

USA the ghost country wrote:

I just visited Detroit, and yes, USA is bankrupt.

12:50 am September 27, 2013

matthtang wrote:

I've been in China over a decade. Yes there are ghost towns, but almost all of them have eventually been occupied. Yes, some people own multiple apartments, but people in the US own multiple homes too. The difference is the amount of home space per capita is much smaller than the US.

9:33 am September 27, 2013

Nokidding wrote:

I never thought of them as ghost cities. When I first read about 'ghost cities' in our lamestream new I knew it all a bunch of cock and bull. Usually stories that have a condemning or spiteful undertones about China are mostly likely wrong or inaccurate.

10:36 am October 11, 2013

G GGGGG unit wrote:

I think, during the transformation from developing to developed, Imitation is the prevalent way but after certain growth innovation is a must . It would be hasty to say Chinese won't innovate. (Japan imitated when they were developing)

4:16 pm October 15, 2013

Shanghai Douche wrote:

Wake up commies!!!. Start writing and REMEMBER to follow the “Rules”….

(1) To the extent possible make America the target of criticism. Play down the existence of Taiwan.
(2) Do not directly confront [the idea of] democracy; rather, frame the argument in terms of “what kind of system can truly implement democracy.”
(3) To the extent possible, choose various examples in Western countries of violence and unreasonable circumstances to explain how democracy is not well-suited to capitalism.
(4) Use America’s and other countries’ interference in international affairs to explain how Western democracy is actually an invasion of other countries and [how the West] is forcibly pushing [on other countries] Western values.
(5) Use the bloody and tear-stained history of a [once] weak people [i.e., China] to stir up pro-Party and patriotic emotions.
(6) Increase the exposure that positive developments inside China receive; further accommodate the work of maintaining [social] stability.

AND DO NOT FORGET :“purity” of Marxism is most important struggle for People!

3:00 am February 19, 2014

Ken Bley wrote:

Their idea of a growing economy is dangerous. It scares the crap out of me. If in 100 years their model becomes what future developing countries look at...good luck world! If this country (USA) even gets close to this model (I see some similarities...actually throughout the world). I hope it's after I'm gone and my children are gone...hate to be negative, but...let's take a lesson from European history on how to learn to run a marathon, not a sprint.

4:25 am May 2, 2014

Meng wrote:

The wrong idea is to have "development models" for other countries to imitate. The "Chinese model" doesn't make a real model that can be applied to elsewhere. All development paths are unique to the locality of the subjects. Therefore if this way of city building works somewhere in China, it is the best for outsiders not thinking it's a useful precedent for their own society's development.

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